Baldur's Gate 3 is over party

 

I endured the speculation of the past few months with a wary eye, offering my own hopes but never quite reading into the actions of Larian beyond that. I wasn't watching the voice actor's every move and believing that transcribed the future of the stars, nor was I looking into every update for the game trying to discern some hidden agenda to patch in content somewhere down the line- I merely fell back on what, from a narrative stand point, would have been essential to continuing on the story that Larian built up through their work on this franchise starting all the way back in 'Decent Into Avernus'. Now it has become quite clear that I overestimated Larian's dedication to rounding out their stories- of course I have- I should have remembered they made the Divinity Games. Archangel Zariel was introduced with no overarching purpose to the Baldur's Gate narrative, and now I want to blow my brains out. Also- Baldur's Gate 3 is over.

It came as something of a shock announcement, following the months of tentative speculation led by a man who seemed himself largely unsure if he had anything on his plate even as he battered off assertions tossed his way- but Sven himself told it plain at GDC: There is nothing more on the horizon for Baldur's Gate fans. No DLC, no sequel (we already knew there wouldn't a sequel right away, they said they weren't going to go into BG4 anytime soon. But the way he phrased it makes it sound like Larian will never do a BG4) and no ancillary events around this Universe from the team. Larian have moved on entirely from the biggest success of their careers and passed on all the intellectual property they loving produced to Hasbro- objectively the worst safeguards humanely conceivable. So that's great. (Can't wait for the comic next year that canonical casts Tav as a Lawful good human fighter literally called 'Tav'.)

That goes true for the much beloved cast of Baldur's Gate as well- so I hope you all get very used to the idea of Karlach and Lae'zel getting shoved into marketing for every other DnD event happening over the next decade! Who cares about the end of their stories, turns out Karlach is running for President of Waterdeep with Gale serving as head of state! Oh, how quirky! And, of course, a Baldur's Gate 3 MTG card pack is probably already in production! Oh wait... no they already threw that cast in with the Dnd themed release. And it happened so long ago that Minthara has her early access model, that's cute! (Is it enough of an excuse for them to do a re-release though? That's the question racing through the minds over at Hasbro right now.) What I'm basically saying is: prepare to steel your heart and accept only the game as canon because Wizards of the Coast are about to squeeze this game and it's property dry trying to profit off the success of Baldur's Gate 3.

What I do not subscribe to, however, is the belief that Baldur's Gate 3's retirement is somehow due to Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro. As Sven himself said, this is a decision that I know Larian made as creatives. They threw everything they really wanted to do into the main game and though I'm sure they had ideas to perhaps expand here and there- maybe even depict the new god Zariel that was introduced for the express purpose of leading in Baldur's Gate 3, ultimately I'm certain it was their idea to walk away. Sven even boasted about how relieved the team looked when he announced their budding DLC plans were cancelled. Of course, then he strangely went on to talk about the great relationship Larian has with the people at Wizards- despite last year kicking up a fuss about how the recent round of WoTC layoffs dropped every contact they had with the company, including the people that gave them the licence in the first place. (Odd about face. Guess they most throw great corporate partner parties as Wizards or something.)

But for me this is suck central. All the coyness about their next project can go do-one: we all know exactly what the next game from Larian is going to be. The fact that Sven even tried to wink at the camera and go 'It's not Divinity Original Sin 3'! Of course it isn't- we already know it's 'Fallen Heroes', that bizarre looking Divinity spin-off has been on hiatus ever since they got the Baldur's Gate 3 go ahead and shifted all resources to the obviously more interesting project. Not once has the whisper of 'New IP' been uttered, which is nary a rare tease for developers to make- thus I can only assume we're back to the world of Divinity which is just... god, I know it's a hot take but I think the Divinity IP holds back Larian's potential so much!

Don't get me wrong, I know it's their homebrew baby and they love it- but the world of Divinity is such indistinctive, wishy-washy, generic-fantasy, mouthwash- I can't stand it! Larian's strengths have always been their incredible application of gameplay systems which transcends the conventional and rewards the creative- it's what made Divinity 1 so creatively interesting, 2 so opportunistically incredible and Baldur's Gate 3 the anarchist's playground. But by god do they miss a beat with world building! Their storytelling is also less than brilliant- but it's not bad. I would even call it good, when they get set-up right. But the world building! GAH!

I'm always talking about it, so I won't go into too much detail here, but Larian have constant inability to paint tangibility. You can have a wayward prince describe their homeland as a real culture you can taste or touch, or as some vague allegorical fairy tale palace of gold upon gold that summons nothing to the heart and mind because it's not meant to be real. It's supposed to serve a vague purpose in a limp parable about 'greed' or something equally as unchallenging to any other observer who passed high school. (Guess which extreme Larian more typically veers towards. I'll give you a clue, the Prince wasn't a hypothetical, that's literally Jahan's backstory from Divinity Original Sin 1.) Larian make countless backdrops, but I've never brought their worlds. (That might have something to do with them totally rewriting the founding principals of said-world every couple of games!)

So in my heart I hope that Larian go off and do something totally different for their next game- still an RPG, of course: they've spent far too long honing their RPG development skills to go and diverge now- 

but maybe a new genre type? Maybe develop a Dark Fantasy next, touching in the kind of worldly philosophical themes on creationism and primal human foils like Dark Souls? Or perhaps a cool Apocalyptic Fantasy instilling a looming existentialism across a grand narrative- heightening the stakes- such as in Vermintide. Or mayhaps a Contemporary Fantasy, taking us into the hidden world of the modern day- like with the 'World of Darkness'. Or maybe even a cool hybrid contemporary-Fantasy that brings us to a modern-day comprehension of the world tempered with normalised magicks that allow for contemporary ideals and struggles to be exploded into world-defining struggles against good and evil- as Shadowrun did. Or maybe even a historical- nope, I don't like historical fantasy. (Stuff's lame. Even Sekiro was hardly 'From Software's best narrative work.) But finally, realistically- I want them to do a kickass Sci-fi and put us Mass Effect missing fools to sleep once and for all. That's the Larian I want to see several years from now when I wake up my fandom. As for now, it's going to sleep along with Baldur's Gate 3. Thanks for the memories, team!